Gaming meets Sophistication: Nintendo & Sony’s new hi-tech consoles

At this year’s E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) holding from June 7-9 at the Los Angeles Convention Centre in California, Japanese gaming powerhouses Sony and Nintendo both unveiled sophisticated consoles that will literally push the frontiers of portable and home gaming farther than ever before.

From Sony comes the Playstation Vita, previously known by the codename NGP (Next Generation Portable). The Vita (Latin for ‘life’) is a truly evolutionary device whose features supersede those offered by every portable gaming console currently on the market. With rich gaming and social connectivity being the key objectives, Sony apparently left nothing out in creating this gizmo. For total control, the Vita sports a 5-inch OLED screen with multitouch capability, a groundbreaking rear touch pad as well as powerful motion sensors. PS3 compatibility and the Playstation family’s trademark dual analog control scheme are also included in the mix.

To further blur the lines between gaming and real life, the Vita incorporates augmented reality and in-game chat available via Wi-Fi or 3G. The device will be available for purchase worldwide from the end of the year at a competitive starting price of $249 (39,000 NGN).

In another display of tech wizardry, Sony’s rivals Nintendo ramped things up on the home gaming front as the creators of the legendary Super Mario Bros. game titles unveiled the successor to their wildly-popular Wii console. Nintendo’s new device is strangely known as the Wii U, but all the jesting ends at the name. Rendering graphics in flawless high definition, this new paradigm in home entertainment clearly aims to be taken very seriously.

The Wii U is a gaming juggernaut with four USB 2.0 ports, expandable memory (via SD card or external USB hard drives) and proprietary high-density optical discs that can hold up to 25 GB of game data. But while all these features are undoubtedly impressive, the device’s killer app is its unique controller. With its very own 6.2-inch touchscreen, an included stylus, accelerometer, gyroscope, microphone and speakers, a fully-featured control pad as well as a front-facing camera, this monster could well be a standalone portable gaming machine.